How To Run Faster: Arm Drills

Learn how to train your arms to help you accelerate you runs.

Slow-fast arms. We start with good mechanics slow driving the elbow back, trying to recover the hand behind the butt cheek, bringing the hand forward no higher than the chest and then driving the elbow back again. Start slow; go as fast as you can with good control back to slow and then fast and then slow, and fast, shocking the neuromuscular system into accepting a faster rate of speed while staying relaxed. Sitting flat on the ground, legs straight out, good posture, start with slow perfect arm action and then slowly increase your speed. We want to build up the speed of the arms until we are bouncing gently with good rhythm off the ground. Now choose simple device, a rubber band in this case, this can be a shoe string tied in a circle; we are going to go around the thumb and around the elbow to lock the arm at a good 90-degree angle. The thumb stays up so the emphasis is on the arm swing from the shoulder. We do not have to have the athletes think about the 90-degree angle—just on driving the elbows back and having good control to generate speed. Next is, do a hand weight run. We want to add moderate resistance, in this case a two and a half pound hand-weight in each hand to help recruit more muscle tissue at the shoulder while matching perfect arm technique, driving the elbow back so we get good recovery behind the body, bringing it forward no higher than the chest. We want to lock at 90 degrees and not get extension so we get good perfect technique from the shoulder and not trying to let that weight moving around.